u.s. formally adopted the policy in 1966. isn't this a beautiful shot? downtown columbus. i'd like to thank our host here at the boat house. we'll be back in an hour by the way. "the situation room" begins right now. thanks very much. you're in "the situation room." happening now, countdown to election night. this hour we'll hear from both candidates live. also, huge turnout for the final day of early voting. reports of lines up to four hours long in some places. and as life begins to return to normal in manhattan, new pleas for help from another hard-hit new york city borough. we're talking about queens. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room."

we're now just three days from the presidential election and the race for the white house is reaching a fever pitch. both campaigns are making a final push for the candidates. their wives, the former president bill clinton, the house speaker john boehner all campaigning down to the wire. cnn is covering their every move. our correspondents are in key locations in critical states. any one of which could ultimately decide who will be the next president of the united states. we're going to -- let's go to colorado right now. mitt romney is speaking there but jim acosta is there setting the stage. tell us what's going on. >> reporter: mitt romney just arrived here just a few moments ago. he has been delivering his closing argument to the crowd here and he's been doing that all day long.

waking up in new hampshire, moving on to iowa and here in colorado for two stops. he has been going after the president on that new unemployment data, he has also been talking about what he would do if he's elected president. talking about cutting the budget, eliminating the president's health care law and tapping into domestic energy resources. i have to tell you the one message that they have been hitting hard in the last final days of this campaign, they have been going after the president on this issue of bipartisanship. mitt romney is making the case that the president has forgotten his mandate to be a uniter in this country. the president said people should be voting because it is the best revenge. mitt romney has been telling crowds all day long that people should be voting out of what they think is best for the country in their heart. so that is the message that they've been delivering all day long. i can also tell you that the front of the campaign plane we

have seen a higher number of top campaign advisers flying with the gop nominee including michael levitt who has been leading the readiness project, as they skaul it. i talked to governor levitt for just a few brief moments in iowa and he said what they've been doing is building a ship, he called it, that they hope will set sail and we'll find out whether that will happen on tuesday. >> maybe, maybe not. i want to listen in on mitt romney. he's got an enthusiastic crowd there in colorado springs. let's listen. >> we've almost forgotten what a real recovery looks like. what americans could achieve when we limit government instead of limiting the dreams of our fellow americans. and the people of america, they're going to be able to choose the future, because they need -- they know what they need to know to know what the future

will look like. they can stay in the path of the last four years, or they can choose real change. now, you know, you know that if the president were to be re-elected, he would still be unable to work with members of congress. he's ignored them. he's attacked them. he's blamed them. and of course the debt ceiling is going to come up again and then there would be a threat of shutdown or default and that of course chills the economy, puts more people out of work. the president was right when he said he can't change washington from the inside. you can take him at his word. that's why we're going to send him outside. all right? when i'm elected i'm going to work with republicans and democrats in congress. i'm going to meet regularly with their leaders. i'm going to endeavor to find those good men and women on both

sides of the aisle who care more about the country than they do about politics. and together, we're going to put the nation back on track to a balanced budget and to reform our tax code and to finally reaffirm our commitment to financial responsibility. now, if the president were to be re-elected he would continue his war on coal and oil and natural gas. he would send billions more to his favorite friends and all of this means higher gasoline prices and fewer jobs. today gasoline costs twice what it did when president obama took office. and when i'm elected, we're going to change the course of energy entirely. i know just how much energy means to middle class families in this country. we can help hold down prices in the pump and grow new energy jobs and new manufacturing jobs with my policies. and by the way, if the president were to be re-elected, he's going to continue to promote government and demote

businesses. you know -- you know, he put together his own jobs council. business leaders he brought from all over the country. and there are people he picked. you know, it's been nine months since he's been willing to meet with his own jobs council? i see free enterprise as a means for people to fulfill their dreams. yesterday i met with a woman in richmond, virginia. she's been running her family restaurant for years. it's a business in her family for 82 years. at its high point she employed 82 people. she just closed it down. she told me that the regulations, the taxes, the cost of obama care, the obama era economy put her out of business much and she teared up as she was telling me her story. it wasn't about the money. this was about the future for her family and for her family of

employees. i want to help the hundreds of thousands of dreamers like rhoda, and i will. and you know if the president were to get re-elected, he's going to say every good thing he can about education. but in the final analysis, what he's going to do is what his largest campaign supporters insist upon, and that's the public sector unions, and your kids would have the same schools and the same results. when i'm president, i'll be the voice of the children and their parents, because there is no union for the pta. i'm going is to make sure that the parents get the information they need about how their school is doing and whether it's failing or succeeding and they get the choice they need to pick the school where their child has

the best chance for success. >> so mitt romney, he's speaking right now in colorado. we're watching him closely. we'll continue to monitor what he has to say. by the way, the president is scheduled to speak live later this hour as well. we will have live coverage of that. he's on a whirl wind swing during these final 72 hours. right now he's in iowa, as i said, we're getting ready to hear from him later this hour. jessica yellin is traveling with the president. first of all, jessica, what does his itinerary today reveal? >> surprise focus on wisconsin in the closing days of the campaign. he is on his way from wisconsin right now to diowa which is across the river from wisconsin.

and he is visiting wisconsin three times in the closing days of this race. that's a state that's traditionally a blue state. a state he should haven't have to be fighting for but the campaign manager says they're taking nothing for granted. they've learned from the past and as you know this is the home state of paul ryan. precious time to be expending on a traditional blue state at the end. the president is cross crossing the nation going is from ohio to virginia to florida to colorado back and forth across the battleground states in the final hours. and part of the message is countering the message you hear from romney. governor romney says he will bring big change, the president arguing he is the only one who can carry that banner. listen to this. >> you may not agree with every decision i've made. sometimes you may have been frustrated by the pace of change. but, you know where i stand.

you know what i believe. you know i mean what i say and i say what i mean. >> and wolf, part of his argument there as well as he's an honest person that voters can trust. something interesting i'll tell you, you might be able to tell over my shoulder, a comparatively small crowd here. they've been mixing it up. the one in wisconsin 20,000 people, according to law enforcement officials there. this one significantly smaller. where ever i've been, they ask for a show of hands how many people have early voted, at most of the president's events have already voted. and the campaigns are emphasizing that's something that's a plus for them. a lot of these people, they've gotten them to turn out. they say that makes it a much heavier left for governor romney come election day. >> what do they say about the size of these crowds.

during the final week four years ago there were tens and thousands and you're saying right now in iowa it's a relatively small crowd? >> the argument, and i'll point out again that 20,000 at an event in wisconsin and reportedly will be tens of thousands tonight in virginia, we'll see. but yes, i've been to only groups where there have been a few thousand for the few past events in ohio, too. the campaign says that's by design. the logic is if they're trying, what they're focused on is getting people out to the polls to vote. they're not trying to build crowds to go to campaign events. they're trying to get people to vote. so if if you're focus is on voting not on crowd 3wi8ding, that might make sense. let's be honest, compared to 2008, they didn't 23450ed to crowd build to get people to come see president obama. after all this economic trouble, it's been a different four years and he's a different candidate

this time around. >> you can't compare the enthusiasm that the obama supporters were showing then compared to now. we'll see how that translates on tuesday. thanks very much jessica yellin. once the president starts speaking we'll have live coverage of that as well. our campaign coverage continues throughout the weekend. please be sure to join us tomorrow night for a cnn special. count down to election night in america. 8:00 p.m. eastern, 5:00 p.m. pacific. anderson cooper and i will co-anchor that special. it's one thing that will seal the deal for mitt romney. we have details of an internal memo that has been obtained by cnn. >> our conviction is even vonger --.

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with romney, facing some questions about how to pull off a win in the key battleground state of ohio and break through president obama's so-called midwestern firewall. his campaign is ensure shurg allies there is still a clear path to skrivictory. peter, tell us about this memo. >> reporter: the romney campaign is facing serious questions about the electoral college math. people in ohio here generally think obama has a slight lead also in wisconsin and iowa and nevada. three of those four would give obama the presidency. so the romney campaign knows they're going to have to answer questions about this on the sunday shows tomorrow and on the final days of the race. they circulated a confidential memo to top republican leaders and surrogates. we got our hands on it. this is what they're saying. they're saying they're putting

the obama campaign on defense. quote, mitt romney is up or tied with obama in every key battleground state forcing obama on defense in states he won by double digits in 2008 like wisconsin, iowa, michigan, minnesota, and pennsylvania. with the campaigns even on the ground and in early vote, gop enthusiasm is going to carry romney to victory. they're saying energy is on their side and look where obama is campaigning. the reality here is just because the obama campaign is playing defense that still doesn't mean they're going to lose those states. you can play defense and still win. so this is what the romney campaign is talking about today. >> what are both campaigns saying about their chances in ohio during these final few days? >> wolf, you know, our poll showed obama leading romney by

three points here, i interviewed govern nor both of them were dismissing public polling saying our models show that the turnout is going to favor republicans. republicans are more enthusiastic. but i went out this morning with some afl-cio organizers. people are talking about turnout. the obama campaign says they've contacted over 120 million vote ners all these battleground states. they have a larger and more sophisticated ground operation. so that's what going on in the end. it's going to come down to turnout. this is a base election. and that's what both campaigns are doing right now is getting their people to vote early,

either the obama campaign is doing their famous souls to the polls push tomorrow morning after churches. that's what we're looking at now. >> peter doing some good reporting for us in clumus ohio. still to come, more on the race for the white house. we've got a lot more on the race for the white house. we're also following the aftermath of the superstorm sandy, four days in a shelter with no shower. we're going to take you to one part of a devastated region in new york city where storm victims are still desperate for food, water and power. stay with us. you're in "the situation room." our abundant natural gas is already saving us money, producing cleaner electricity, putting us to work here in america and supporting wind and solar. though all energy development comes with some risk, we're committed to safely and responsibly producing natural gas. it's not a dream. america's natural gas...

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we'll get back to the race

for the white house shortly. the president getting ready to speak in iowa. meanwhile, millions are suffering in the wake of superstorm sandy. power is beginning to trickle back on, but more than 2 million customers are still in the dark. new york transit authorities are reporting that subway service is 80% restored. one area still waiting for the lights and the heat to come back, the rockaways section of queens. new york city mayor michael bloomberg toured the heavy devastation there today. susan candiotti is on the ground. >> reporter: the water came up to where in your apartment? >> the water came all the way up to where we were. we were knee deep. we couldn't get out. 911 wouldn't answer. we were stuck. we had to stay there. we were totally scared. and the devastation after the storm is what you see. there's children with no food. there are people without water.

nobody has power. people can't cook. and nobody is -- the only people that are out here are people from rockaway that are donating stuff. and rockaway park, just like everyone else, needs help. >> you feel like you've been left out? >> i feel like we need help out here. we need the city to step in. we need fema to come and place people in housing. because you have children who lost everything. you have parents who are deaf state who are sitting in shelters. i was in a hurricane shelter, is-217. there were no showers and we were there for four days. >> reporter: you got your teenaged son out of here before the storm hit. >> right. i got him out because i didn't want him to be here in the devastation. >> and see all of this. >> sues onan also tells us the community groups are on the ground handing out hot food,

clothing and water to held those storm victims in need. it's the final three-day push to the finish line. we're waiting for president obama to take to the stage in iowa. you're looking at live pictures. we'll hear from the president. we're also going to hear shortly from one of the president's biggest supporters, his former white house chief of staff rom emanuel. ime ime and maybe it's costing too much money. introducing bluebird by american express and walmart. your alternative to checking and debit. it's loaded with features, not fees. because we think your money should stay where it belongs. with you. the value you expect. the service you deserve. it feels good to bluebird. get it at your local walmart.

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pictures from dubuque, iowa. we're going to go there live to hear from the president. stand by for that. mitt romney and the president are making their final three-day push to the finish line. supporters on both sides are making the case for their respective candidate. let's bring in candy crowley and gloria borger. you just taped an interview for tomorrow's state of the union with the chicago mayor. i got a little clip. let me play it. >> the vice president's wife has been send up to pennsylvania doing a couple of early weekend stops. bill clinton is being used in pennsylvania on monday. it tells me that you all are a little worried about that or worried about the race in general. are you saying no? >> no. i think, look. i think, candy. ready? it's a close election.

b, you nail everything down. i think pennsylvania is secure but you don't take anything for granted and that means there's going to be a lot of people going back to ohio in the next 96 hours. multiple times they'll go to pennsylvania. but pennsylvania is going to be on both the philadelphia, the surrounding counties and pittsburgh and harrisburg, that's where you have a democratic vote and you do go to secure it. but that doesn't mean it's flipping. it just means the natural tiding of a race. >> let's bring in candy. if they're spending a lot of time in pennsylvania at this late stage, it suggests to me they're worried. >> it did to me and it's about the fourth time i put this question to him because he veers off nicely into talking points. the fact is that the romney people went in there for a couple of reasons. one, they said listen, mitt romney hasn't been beaten about the head in pennsylvania on the air as he has in so many of these other states. two, it's down to a four-point race according to some of these polls. and three, they've got as much

up in some of these swing states as they possibly can put up in terms of ads. they've got the ground game covered and they figured that pennsylvanias will vote on election day. >> i agree. i talked with the senior romney adviser about this yesterday and i said pennsylvania, what are you doing in pennsylvania? if they didn't feel they were covered in every other state, we're used to campaigns sort of allocating resources saying we're running out of money. that's not the case this time. there are extra resources. so if you look at their, at internal polls which show the race sort of three to five points somewhere, it would be malpractice if they didn't actually just go in and -- as someone said, it's like buying a lottery ticket. you might as well and see. >> look at where they're spending. both of these candidates tomorrow and monday. obama is going to new hampshire, florida, ohio, wisconsin, iowa,

romney going to ohio, new hampshire, pennsylvania, virginia, i guess where they are underscores what they need to do. >> sure. it doesn't exactly look like your summer vacation, does it? they're all in ohio multiple times. >> and that one extra hour we'll get tonight, they'll probably go to ohio. >> but obama needs -- they both need ohio. let's stipulate that. but he's got a midwestern strategy. if he can do ohio, wisconsin and iowa, he believes he could put it away. romney of course ohio. but he needs virginia and florida. needs if he is going to get his path to 270 and that's why you see him in these two states. >> one thing i mentioned to jessica yellin earlier, the obama crowds in these final few days are no where near where they were four years ago. they were huge four years ago. i don't know if that's a concern to them.

i don't necessarily buy that. i think they would love to have tens of thousands of people show up as they did four years ago. that's not happening. >> i think you will see it in the final, final day. i think probably monday or maybe even sunday night. but the fact is, remember how four years ago it was all about the movement. this was a movement and then all these throngs of people would come in. this is now about governance. this has been a hard slug. it takes some work to get tens of thousands of people into an arena after four years of governing because that's reality as as opposed to hope and change. >> now they're focusing on trying to get their people to the polls. they say that they've contacted 125 million voters, and that the romney campaign has only contacted 50 million and there's a huge disparity there. they would say they're more interested in that than in the crowds. i think they would like to have both. >> thanks guys very much.

this programming note. you can see candy's full interview tomorrow morning a special edition of "state of the union" beginning at 9:00 a.m. eastern. once again, we're standing by to hear from the president of the united states. he's campaigning in iowa. you're looking at live pictures. there's the word "forward" with the exclamation point. it's been like that for the last several days. we'll hear from the president when we come back. o of f daday. ououtdtdoooorsrs, , oro. trtranansisititiononss® ls auautotomamatiticacalllly y fift ththe e ririghght t amamouountn. soso y youou s seeee e eveg ththe e waway y itit is memeanant t toto b be e ses. mamaybybe e evevenen a lilittttlele b betette. exexpeperirienencece l lifife e, asask k fofor r trtrananss adadapaptitiveve l lene. the economy needs manufacturing. machines, tools, people making stuff.

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and let's take a closer look right now in the race to 270 electoral votes. john king is here at the magic wall. on this day with three days to go, it's going to be complicate d. >> we know it's close and we

have to say advantage to the president. but how big, that's the open question. we start the final weekend 237 strong or leaning the president's way. 206 leaning governor romney's way. the race of course is to 270. the president is ending withal rallies in iowa, wisconsin and ohio. why? because that's his easiest path to 270. if the president can take iowa, can take wisconsin and can take ohio, it's game over. if nothing else changed on the map, that would get the president to 271 and it would be game over. that's why the president is ending his campaign right here in the hardland. places where he can talk about the auto bailout. that's one way. that's the president's quickest way. i won't say it's the easest. it means that governor romney has to take the state of ohio. that was the president's fastest way. how does governor romney get there? he has to win the state of florida. he needs florida. he has to take north carolina.

we already had him leaning that way and he has to take virginia as well. that would get governor romney there. then the governor romney's most reasonable scenario is to take ohio. no republican has ever won without i9. if governor romney can get those votes plus virginia around north carolina, that would get him to 266. over here in the east, he would need just one more. any one of the remaining states, if governor romney can do florida, virginia, north carolina and ohio, any one of the remaining states would put him over the top. that's what makes this one so, so important. so if he does that, then he's got a pretty interesting terrain. he's competitive in colorado, this one tends to be leaning democratic. the romney campaign says it's competitive, but consistent polling in the wisconsin. this one here, romney campaign says it's competitive, let's for hypothetical let's say that's a safer pick to give that to the president. i'm going to take it back and make it a tossup state again.

i was in colorado recently. this is a true toss-up. for the sake of argument say governor romney gets that. then you're out here in the east again, 253, 257. for the sake of argument give that to the president, you're at 259, 257. who wins nample? only four. that could be a critical one there. this is the biggest one of all. governor romney has to kin. if he does in this scenario, he's over the top. if he does you could potentially have a scenario like this. with a state like colorado and a state like new hampshire deciding it at the end. if there's one place to watch, that is the biggest of the battlegrounds heading into the final days. >> you can't overestimate how important eye yoe is to both of those candidates. >> not just romney. i can give you more reasonable

obama 2007 scenarios, but what makes this interesting is you have strategies on republican siesd saying we need it, and strategists saying we probably need it too. >> john king over at the magic wall for us. the president is getting ready to be introduced there in dubuq dubuque, iowa. we're going to hear what he has to say. stand by. a year of mortgage payments... courtesy of quicken loans. in other words: absolute happiness! enter often at skipayear.com. in other words: absolute happiness! perform, compete and grow. and people are driving this change. that's the power of human resources. the society... for human resource management and its members know... how to harness that power, because we help develop it. from the next economy, to the next generation, we help get... the most out of business, by getting the best out of people.

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'. this may be the most closely watched election in history. now we know that there's been a change in new jersey in the wake of hurricane sandy. joe johns is joining us now and

he's got more of what's going on. >> in response to the superstorm, governor christie in new jersey has issued a directive that says displaced voters can submit ballot applications either by e-mail or by fax to their county clerk. they have to return the ballot by 8 p.m. on tuesday. an unusual situation. it's a case of states changing the rules on the fly for an emergency. the type of thing poll watchers are already looking out for as we close in on election day. >> reporter: long lines in south florida and in cincinnati, ohio as early voting comes to a close. and those aren't the only crowds this hotly contested election has attracted. >> 10,000 in grass roots. >> everywhere. they've trained people in 50 states to legally poll watch. >> reporter: lawyers and poll watchers of all political stripes descending on ohio and across the country in search of any issues that need to be

challenged. >> we're looking for long lines that might be the result of machines breaking down, poll workers that might be asking the wrong questions, asking for id when they shouldn't be. >> reporter: groups like the left leaning election protection have been training for weeks so they're ready to respond to any problems at the polls in real time. >> with all the changes nationally in the voting laws, we're prepared for there to be a significant amount of confusion on election day. >> reporter: but controversy over some of how the organizations do their job. >> they have problems. >> reporter: former justice department lawyer christian adams now represents true the vote, a tea party-affiliated group with a simple goal. >> free and fair elections. true vote stands for election integrity. follow the law, period. >> reporter: but true the vote has real critics of their own from the left. >> true the vote has consistently challenged the

voting rights of legitimate voters. we must address anybody who dries to deny anybody that right to vote. i consider it criminal, i consider it unpatriotic and highly offensive zblr. >> they're liars. they are bearing false witness against law abiding citizens and they should be ashamed of themselves. >> reporter: whatever the election watchers find it may be up to super lawyers like ted olson to go to court. he led republicans to victory between george bush and al gore. >> i'm clearing my calendar. >> reporter: he says if election officials want to avoid litigation, they shouldn't change direction in the middle of the game. >> if you follow the rules that were in place on election day with respect to counting the ballots, then the presumptive

outcome will be expected. >> but the truth is there could be other changes to the rules, especially as states affected by the storm get ready for the election. we'll be looking for them as i am sure lawyers well as will. >> the president is now speaking in dubuque, iowa. he's really getting into his speech. let's listen in. >> it's a choice between going back to the top-down economics that crashed our economy, or embracing a future where we're building a strong and growing middle class. you know, as americans, we honor the striefrs and the dreamers, the entrepreneurs, the free enterprise system is the greatest engine of prosperity that the world has ever known. but we also know that our markets work best. the free enterprise system works best when everybody is participating. when we make sure that

everybody's got a good education, and everybody can learn new skills. when we support research into medical breakthroughs or clean energy technology. we think that america is stronger when everybody can count on affordable health care. and medicare and social security in their retirement. we think the market work better when there are rules in place to protect our kids from toxic dumping, to protect consumers from being taken advantage of by unscrupulous credit card companies or mortgage lenders. we don't want government doing everything we think that we can do most things ourselves. but there are times we can come together but we certainly don't want government getting involved in the wrong things. we think we don't need politicians, especially mostly male politicians to try and control health care choices that women are perfectly capable of

making themselves. for eight years we had a president we shared these believes. his name was [ cheers and applause ] >> his economic plan, like mine, asked the wealthiest americans to pay a little bit more so we could reduce our deficit, invest in the skills of our people, invest in the ideas that we need to succeed in a new economy. and, at the time, back in the '90s, the republican congress and a senate candidate by the name of mitt romney said bill clinton's program would hurt the economy and kill jobs. sound familiar? turns out, his math back then was just as bad as it is now. because, by the end of president clinton's second term, we created 23 million new jobs, incomes were up, deficits were down. so, iowa, we know our ideas work.

we've put them to the test. we also know that their ideas don't work. because they have been tested, also. in the eight years before i came into office, we've tried what they're selling. we've tried giving big tax cuts to the wealthiest of americans. we tried giving insurance companies and wall street a free license to do what they please. here's what we got. fallen incomes, record deficits, and an economic crisis we're still cleaning up after. so we know what works. we know what doesn't. now, governor romney, he's a very talented salesman. and, in this campaign, he's been working overtime to try to repackage the old, bad ideas that didn't work and try to sell them to you as new ideas. he's trying to say that they're changed. but here's the things. iowa, we know what change looks

like. [ cheers and applause ] >> and what he's selling is not change. giving more power to the biggest banks? that's not change. another $5 trillion tax cut that favors the wealthy? not change. refusing to answer questions about the details of your policy until after the election? that's definitely not changing. politicians do that all of the time. ruling out compromise, pledging the rubber stamp, the tea party agenda in congress? that's not change. that's what we need to change. that's why i'm running for a second term. changing the facts when they're inconvenient to your campaign, that is definitely not change. so what he's selling, we tried it. it didn't work. we're not going back. those are the attitudes in washington we need to change.

and that raises something about the choice you have to make, iowa. you know, a lot of choosing a president is about trust. you know, iowa, i started my presidential journey right here in this state. after two years of campaigning and after four years as president, you know me by now. you may not agree with every decision i've made. you may have sometimes been frustrated with the pace of change. but you know that i say what i mean. and i mean what i say. you know what i believe. you know where i stand. when i said i ended the war in iraq, i ended the war in iraq.

>> so the president of the united states, he's getting into it. he's going to do several more before tuesday. we'll continue to monitor what he's saying in the battleground state for iowa. here's a question, republicans may have a tough time winning the majority in the senate. why? >> we've doubled clean energy production in this country.

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and our senior congressional correspondent is here in the situation room. dana, the balance of power in the senate is pretty tight right now. it could be different, maybe not, after the dust settles on november 6th. >> republicans currently hold 47 seats, democrats hold 51 if you add the two independent senators actually equals 53. but 47 is the magic number. the math is pretty simple. in order to get to 51, they need to net four seats. >> unless romney wins the white house and then they only need three. >> but for comfort reasons, they'll need for. but look at this, wolf, 13 competitive races across the map. this is a huge number. republican that is have to defend their seats, democrat that is have to defend their seats as well.

that's a big problem for americans that you see these red states right here because they have to hold onto these and, also, capture the democratic seats. and the problem is if you look up in new england, maine and massachusetts, republicans at this point, they're likely to lose those seats. a number of polls, internal republican polls, they're very pest mystic that they're going to actually pull that off. and then in the state of maine, they think that seat is going to be gone to the former governor, i should say. let's just look back at the map. they needed four to pick up a net four. take away those two, 45 they currently would have. so they need to get six, then, si six of the blue states, the competitive, democratically-held states. let's look at the map. there are a number of them across the country. montana, neck-in-neck.

north dakota, neck-in-neck, as well. virginia, all of these pretty much have race polls that are just too close to call. republicans have to run the board because they need six out of eight in order to take control of the senate. they're not entirely optimistic that they're going to do that. it's a huge question mark. >> how close is virginia? it's about as close as can be: >> it sure is. and another interesting tidbit by republicans that are trying to win back the senate tell us, they are believe now, really, the only way they can do that is if mitt romney wins the white house to pull the senate candidates up on his coat tales. >> we'll see what happens. and the reason they would only need three if romney were to win is the vice president, as the president of the senate, he would break the tie. you have 50 republicans, that would be the majority: >> and that's happened before. >> it certainly has.